Portuguese Poet Grace Gouveia goes big on Provincetown’s Motta Field with her poetry by artist Jay Critchley; open to the public beginning in early April.
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What: Unveiling and view party
When: 4:00-6:00PM, Monday, April 14th 2025 Where: Pilgrim Monument Special guests:
Free and open to the public. It is anticipated that the installation will be visible for several weeks before redevelopment of the field begins. |
Before Provincetown’s historic Motta Field undergoes a massive makeover and upgrade, Provincetown based artist Jay Critchley will honor Portuguese immigrant poet Grace Gouveia, inscribing her poetry with white line chalk on the town’s historic athletic field. This
temporary, experimental public art installation, vulnerable to the elements, will be created for public viewing in early April, when weather permits, with a public event on April 14.
The neighboring Pilgrim Monument, towering over this next-door field at 372’ high, will host a community unveiling and viewing party for her writing on the field, Monday, April 14, 4:00-6:00 pm. This artwork is part of the artist’s Grace Gouveia: Smoking Bomb, a multidisciplinary project honoring this trailblazing hometown poet. The first fifty people to climb the monument and take a photo or selfie at the top will be given a copy of Critchley’s Build a Monument Book with text by Grace Gouveia (published in 1982!).
The event is free and open to the public.
Known for her flowing moo moo dresses, enveloped in billowing cigarette smoke with an inexplicable long dangling ash, Grace Gouveia, a Portuguese immigrant, arrived in Provincetown at the age of seven in 1916 and lived the American dream. Recognized for her radical approach to teaching fifth and sixth graders for twenty-seven years, she went on to join VISTA, teach in Harlem and founded Provincetown Council on Aging. She was excommunicated from the Catholic Church for advocating for birth control.
Grace graduated from both American International College and Mt. Holyoke College and picked berries to pay for her tuition. She is also an unrecognized poet who wrote passionately about the community and the hardship and joy she experienced as the town was rapidly changing.
“Grace was a close friend who was engaged in all aspects of the town. I met her while working at the fabled Drop-In Center in the late 1970s. We shared a deep interest in local history and the importance of community,” stated Critchley. “I will be raising funds to publish a book of her poems,” he added.
This public art project also honors the unceded Land of the Wampanoag Nation and the generations of school children and adults who graced this important community space. Grace Gouveia: Smoking Bomb is sponsored by the Provincetown Recreation Department and supported by the Provincetown Community Compact and the Pilgrim Monument & Provincetown Museum.
